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Nov 9, 2013

Saturday, Nov 9th, 2013, Norm Guggenbiller

Theme: None

Words: 68 (missing J,Q,W,X)

Blocks: 38

This is a new constructor for me, but Norm's last LAT was this year in
May. As for the puzzle, lots of white on the first Across pass, but
then some solid perp(endicular)s on the Down run filled in enough to go
back and take some W.A.G.s. Triple 9's in two corners and then a nifty
little 4-way spiral of 9-letter words in the center, plus two 11-letter
spanners intersecting two 11-letter climbers;

20A. Questionable strategy for a runner? : SMEAR TACTIC - Political office runners, that is

11D. Bring up something sensitive : TOUCH A NERVE
- Didn't quite "Nail It", more like I "pre-drilled" the hole for it - I
pre-filled in "-N-E-S-S" for 29A, since a clue using "quality" usually
implies this attribute

22D. Bodybuilding goal : SCULPTED ABS - I knew where this was going, but I started with SIX PACK, which was
too short, then ROCK HARD, and that wasn't working. So, for the ladies -

A puzzle that hasn't a themeCan be either a nightmare or dream.Which one was today?No, no, I won't say,I don't want anyone to demean.

How hard should a puzzle really be?That's unique for you and for me.We're each expert at some thing,Ignoramii at another thing,In between, we're all over the tree.

What difficulty do we expect?A sashay or a pain in the neck?Some want it so hard They'll come away scarred,Others just hard enough for effect.

I started out with a story woven from today's longer entries, but it was pretty bad, even for me. I may post it around midnight so the morbidly curious can shudder at it tomorrow. The first verse was the only half-way decent one, for Bill G.

TOUCH A NERVEThere once was a girl with such curveAny young man who saw her would swerveA sine curve, knee to torso,Then a bell curve, but more so,A cantilever structure, you'll observe!

This was a really nice romp for a Saturday -- tough, but doable. Hand up for _SIZE, ___NESS, GIVE IN, LATHES. My TOAST was a GONER and I was SKIMming before I was SKIPping. But it still all came together in one swell foop.

Splynter, thanks for link on LOTTE LENYA. I knew the name, and I recognized the image from the Bond movie, but I'd never put the two together.

A daunting challenge....but ultimately successful. Filled in from the SW, more or less. Many of my first guesses were right, such as Asta, but it took several passes to finally get to the "Oh what the hell" frame of mind and actually write them in. Slowly. Surely. It all came together. Biggest stumbling blocks were having shift for shock, then not being able to stifle Clu for Gallagher and cello for fin even though they wouldn't fit.

Found this very much like a Silkie: first pass, lots of white space, second pass, chip, chip away, and, slowly, but surely, everything falls into place and finally, TADA! Tough but fun and doable, w/o help. Lots of misdirection and lots of great fill

Thanks, Norm, for a challenging Saturday offering and thanks, Splynter, for a super expo.

Gray and gloomy today and chilly. Can't complain, though, as we had a beautiful, long- lived Fall.

Amazingly, from the NE, diagonally, to the SW, I sashayed quickly, ATLAS to TOAST then SKIPped between the NW and SE.

Finally, one cell at a time they began to fall like dominoes in slow motion. I wanted KAHN insead of INGA so that slowed the process until I had to research "cristal" and was surprised to learn it was from BIC.

I really chuckled at "French bean product" IDEE.

What a great challenge from Norm Guggenbiller. Thank you.

Birthday party for one of the toddlers, today, a great-great nephew. He'll be three.

TADA! TADA! TADA! First Saturday puzzle I've gotten perfectly in ages. Thanks a million, Norm! Wasn't easy, but a fun challenge is always great. The only thing I had on my first pass was TOTIE--not much to work with. But slowly, slowly, it all filled in. Terrific day to start a Saturday. And enjoyed the always great write-up, Splynter.

Fairly tough, even for Saturday, but got the job done. Lots of 70's references today… TOTIE Fields was on the "Tonight" show all the time , "Alias SMITH and Jones" Western TV show, "Jaws" omen, PATTI Page, "Young Frankenstein". Good thing I watched a lot of television when I was growing up!

Abejo, you ARE in our backyard. The CA Coven frequents a Starbucks in Los Gatos. I'm sorry we couldn't arrange a rendezvous, but it sounds like you are very busy. I have forgotten which Lodge you belong to.

Dudley, thanks for your comment on Marti's. 999. Clock from yesterday. Made me go back and look. Sure enough, it has the 0.9 overbar , from along time ago.

9 - sqrt 9. + 0.9 ( overbar) = 7

If the bar is over a single symbol/number/character, it is a macron. Signifies, variously -, a complex conjugate ( a math expression, not crosswordese). Or an arithmetic mean or a negation of a logical expression (NOLE).

If the bar is over several symbols/numbers etc. it is a Vinculum. ( No, not the stuff to examine the woman's vagina ... That's the speculum .). Vinculum signifies, variously -, a radical, a line segment , a repeating decimal or a NOLE, as above.

A lot of good clues here, with slight misdirections or ambiguities: "Stale quality," "Buzzed," Fed. security," "French bean product," and "Head out West?"

Thought it would be tough - and it was for a while. But this turned out to be my quickest Saturday fill in a long time.

It was almost a DNF because I could only think of "Fire" as either the hot flame stuff or the get-tossed-on-your-ear type. I reached a point where, because of using RILS as a perp, I had ZELL as my response. That was the last error I caught. I changed to RIAS and ZEAL just in the nick.

My other almost-error was in the NW corner, where I had PETTY ANTE for the longest time. The double Ts in other parts of the pzl encouraged that error. But PETTY kept nagging at me until I Googled the word (not the answer but the error) and so realized it could not stand.

And so I completed this Sat pzl w/o a single help! (Well, no *direct* help, anyway--and it's our own rules that apply here, no?)

I spent the day tearing out moldy walls in the bathroom next door. UGH! So it is with a huge sigh of relief that I can finally sit down and put in my 2 cents worth.

I think I had all the same missteps as Splynter and Barry. But I was positive that the "Dog star" was Sirius, so wanted something line "cana." BZZZTTT!! When I finally figured out ASTA, I almost kicked myself.

Hand up for triFECTA before PERFECTA…

Dudley, glad you enjoyed the clock! It was really clever how they used all nines to make each hour, and following on the heels of Bill G.'s math games, I couldn't resist posting it.

NaFC for me (Not a F***ing Chance) for me today. I don't know how you folks get a toe-hold in a Sat. I had ATLAS, TOOTH, SHOCK, HELLLO, SKIm and ONEK. And couldn't suss out anything else (after 3 hours!). Thanks Splynter for keeping me from going mad and giving me an exit when I raised the white flag.

But, I didn't come here to rant - I know I can't do a Sat - but instead to see how everyone is doing (and to be completely humbled by those that can do a Sat.) :-)...

YOMRA (anon @12:25) - I didn't notice the 7 on the clock, thanks for the refresher course on "bar."

I agree that 0! = 1 is not right; as is root(-1) = i. It works out in our symbology (and electricity!), but when it gets to factoring primes (to break crypto), I think a different number representation (one I still can't figure out) based on base e or (root(5)+1)/2 would serve us better.

My fascination with this started in HS with Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio.* Every now & again I pull out the ol' notebook and play with the idea.

Cheers, -T

*I went to State for math reversing Fibonacci's formula to determine if any give number (n) falls in the sequence. A personal discovery of irrational numbers. Yes, I am a nerd - DW loves me anyway ...

Mr. Doc, 0! = 1 does seem odd at first but it fits in with everything else. How are you with n^0 = 1? (That's any number n to the zero power equals one.) That always seemed wrong to me when I first learned it in high school but it makes perfect sense now and it fits into all of the other rules and definitions. How about not being allowed to divide by zero?

And thus my issue with representation... 1/0 = infinity or a singularity / undefined. We are doing it right for the macro: $3 - $1 = $2, but it's so wrong for "real" problems. I'm just a dope thinking about it. Maybe there's something there with waveforms, but I'm too dumb to get it just yet... Like a Sat Pzl :-)

Doc: I was gonna ask the same as IM, but it didn't fit the post. Where the heck are you? With Sawyer or Finn with Jim on the Missisip?

I had this puzzle 90% done and Joann decided she wanted to go to a Veterans Day Parade in Bellevue near SAC Air Force base on a perfect fall day. We then spent two hours at a craft show and another hour at Kohl’s. My brownie points runneth over. We got home in time to see Huskers beat Michigan in Ann Arbor with many, many subs due to injuries. Life is good.Not much point in Musing this late today but here’s one vote FOR sexist pictures. I can take ‘em in the spirit in which they are offered and could never play a Puritan if our Crossword Corner players put on a Thanksgiving pageant.Finally got a captcha code!

Hello everybody. No time to post much, and pretty much WEES anyway. Been working a lot today; have some good contracts. Hard puzzle, but I solved it. I think I'm becoming a better solver. Love xword puzzles! Best wishes to you all.

A lot of things get said on the golf course that would never be said under ordinary circumstances. I think you and I live with strong wives, daughters and (for me) strong granddaughters that we know that this joke is just that.